Healing of the Heart
by Nanya
Summary: After the final showdown against Reizume, the nations have begun to heal. Not only them, but the CPUs, long worn out from fighting, have begun their own journeys towards recovery. Sequel to Shadows of the Heart.
1. Noire

Disclaimer: I don't own Hyperdimension Neptunia, it belongs to Idea Factory, Compile Heart, Sega and whomever else works on it.

So I'm doing a sequel to Shadows of the Heart. I thought I'd do a one-shot, but it looks like it'll be a few chapters.

They'll be relatively short, but hopefully enjoyable.

To be honest, I never thought I'd write out a sequel this fast.

* * *

Nepgear sighed as she looked over the reports. "More monsters on the loose near the borders, huh?" Ever since disbanding most of the military over two months ago, there had been a rise of monster attacks across Planeptune. Not that she didn't expect it. While she still had enough of a military to deal with large monster outbreaks, she couldn't send them out to deal with monster infestations like she could back when she still viewed the other nations as enemies. Fortunately most of the monster infestations were Tulips and Dogoos with an occasional Boxbird or Froggy monster thrown in for good measure. Picking up her phone, she pushed a button and waited for the person on the other end to pick up. "Hello, Jupiter?"

_"Hey, sis, what's up?"_

"I got a report of some monsters that are getting too close to the roads between Planeptune and Lastation. Are you near there?"

_"Yeah, I was going to meet Uni, Rom and Ram at the check-in station and show them around Planeptune."_

Nepgear had a tiny smile at hearing that. "If it wouldn't be too much of a problem, would you four be willing to deal with those monsters? From what I can tell it's mostly Tulips and Dogoos."

_"Aren't those the only monsters we have outside of dungeons?" _Jupiter laughed on the phone._ "Don't worry, I'm sure they'll help me deal with them."_

"Thanks." Nepgear replied and looked over to the door as she heard a knock. "Someone's here, so I'll see you tonight."

_"Sure, don't work too hard."_ Jupiter said as she hung up.

Nepgear shook her head and got up from her desk before walking to the door and opening it up, revealing someone she didn't expect to see. "Noire, what are you doing here?" She then noticed that Noire was looking a little nervous, which didn't make too much sense, while there was still some awkwardness between Nepgear and the other CPUs, the raw tension and animosity had mostly evaporated between them.

"I heard that there were some monsters running free, if this is a bad time..." She trailed off and Nepgear noticed that she had a bucket with ice in it and what looked like a bottle sticking out from the ice.

"It's mostly mob monsters that I'm sure Jupiter can handle." Nepgear answered her. "The reports aren't saying anything too dangerous. What's in the bucket?"

Noire still looked a bit nervous. "Um... It's wine. It was a gift... From your elder sister to me."

Nepgear's eyes widened.

(-)

A few minutes later, the two were in Nepgear's kitchen with Nepgear pulling out two wine glasses and walking over to the table, where Noire was sitting down. She nodded as Nepgear put the glasses on the table. Opening up the bottle, though Nepgear noted that there was a thick layer of dust and grime on the bottle, Noire filled the glasses with red wine.

"Are you here to see if we can get drunk on wine?" Nepgear asked as she took her glass and sat down not far from Noire.

Noire shook her head. "No. Trust me, I've tried to get drunk on all sorts of alcohol." She gave Nepgear a wry smirk. "If I wasn't a Goddess, I would have been a drunken mess for years. Only time I ever got drunk was when I drank stuff that was carbonated."

"Oh." Nepgear said softly and looked at the wine and looked at Noire as she took a sip of the stuff. "Was it Neptune's death that drove you to drinking?"

Noire shook her head. "Nah, I developed a taste for alcohol about a century and a half ago." Nepgear looked at her in surprise and Noire laughed. "What? You don't know? I've ruled Lastation for almost two hundred years now."

"...Oh." That was a bit surprising, while she knew that CPUs could live for centuries and that Iris Heart had lived to be around five hundred before disappearing, it was still surprising to realize that she was so young in comparison.

"Yeah." Noire smirked at her. "Most people think that we're only a few decades old at most, since we look and act so young." She looked at the wine in her glass and sighed. "Neptune got me, Vert and Blanc a bottle of this stuff every five years. I always thought it was going to be rigged to be a prank."

Nepgear tilted her head. "How come you never threw it away then?" She knew that she would have thrown away the wine if she was in Noire's position back then.

Noire shrugged and took another sip of the wine. "I guess, deep down, I felt really touched by the gift, so I created a wine cellar and put all the bottles she gifted to me down there. It was only after we killed her that I bothered opening one." She chuckled softly. "I figured if Neptune had them booby trapped or they were a prank, she deserved to get one last win over me."

"But they weren't huh?" Nepgear asked, getting a shake from Noire. Mentally shrugging, Nepgear took a drink from the glass and her eyes widened in shock. "I...It's sweet!"

Noire smirked at her. "Your sister loved sweet things. I once trapped her in an exploding waffle house because I made a trail of frosted gingerbread men for her to follow."

"...Exploding waffle house?" Nepgear asked, an utterly baffled look on her face.

Noire sighed softly. "When we first met, your sister pranked myself, Blanc and Vert. We got back at her but then we didn't stop pranking each other."

Nepgear nodded, listening silently as she took another small drink of the wine. While she loved Neptune deeply and her sister's death had hurt her so much over the years, it was nice to learn things about her sister.

"Well, at one point, I found out that your sister had quite the sweet tooth." Noire chuckled softly. "So I practiced making frosted gingerbread men and a giant house made of waffles."

"So..." Nepgear began. "...How did you make it explode?"

Noire suddenly started laughing as she remembered how she did it. "I had a bunch of bottles of Diet Nowacola and Fentos." Nepgear's eyes widened in shock. "Yeah, and there were other things too, but when Neptune went into the waffle house, I slammed the door closed behind her, triggering the trap..."

"...I'm almost afraid to ask how..."

"I was fifteen meters away and I still got knocked onto my ass from the explosion." Noire grimaced, she had severely underestimated the power of those explosive cola bottles plus the other stuff she had put in there. "Neptune was mostly okay.. Other than being wrapped in a large, hot waffle cone with whipped cream and ice cream on top of her."

Nepgear gave her an astonished look before her shoulders started to shake and her lips curled upwards. "Oh that... Hee hee hee..."

The two CPUs started to laugh as they thought about the situation. After regaining their senses, they finished their wine and Noire poured them both another glass.

The two sat silently for awhile and slowly drank the wine. "Noire..?" Nepgear finally broke the silence, causing the elder CPU to look at her curiously. "Why did the four of you stop pranking each other?"

Noire sighed heavily and leaned back in her chair. "...It was about a century ago, I believe, maybe less. The pranks were getting more intense every time we did stuff. Sometimes they got pretty close to having someone getting hurt. Well, at one point all four of our Basilicoms were destroyed." Nepgear's eyes widened in shock and Noire shook her head. "Sorry, they weren't completely destroyed, but enough of them were that we had to rebuild. Each of us blamed the other ones for what happened."

"...Did a third party set you all up?"

Noire shrugged at the question. "Possibly, but we never thought about it at the time. We were all mad at each other. Neptune was furious with us. There were reports of a dozen people dead from her Basilicom exploding and hundreds more were hurt. Your sister could forgive a lot, but not having innocent people getting hurt."

"Oh..." Nepgear said softly. "...You think that it was Arfoire? She manipulated you into killing Neptune after all."

Noire sighed softly. "It wouldn't surprise me." She downed the rest of her glass and then poured herself another one, drinking that one quickly. "Sometimes I wish I could get a simple buzz from wine." Nepgear gave her a confused look and she sighed. "I spent the first two years after your sister's death trying to drink myself to death." She had a sour look on her face. "I couldn't even feel it. And I was drinking stuff that could have gotten an Ancient Dragon drunk off its ass."

"You said something about carbonated drinks?"

Noire nodded. "It was... So long ago I can't even remember exactly when." Noire shook her head and gave the younger CPU a small smirk. "Your sister decided to play a prank on me one night. She snuck in when I was tired from working, shoved a bottle of root beer into my mouth and the next thing I know I'm completely sloshed. I don't even remember what happened until the morning." She blushed when Nepgear raised an eyebrow at her. "I somehow ended up tied to a flagpole, outside... Which wouldn't be a problem except that I was in a grass skirt and a coconut top over my breasts... And nothing else."

"...Oh my." Nepgear blushed softly at that and took another drink of her wine. "That must have been... Interesting."

"Humiliating was more like it." Noire groused, her face red as she remembered that.

A few moments later both of them started to laugh at the absurdity of the whole thing.

"So much time wasted fighting your sister, wallowing in my own guilt..." Noire said softly. "I'm going to say something that's going to sound crazy, but..."

"Neptune's spirit visited you after we dealt with Reizume, right?" Nepgear asked, causing Noire to look at her sharply. "She..." There was a small smile on her face. "She was watching over me for years. Ever since I first saw you, Vert and Blanc in Celestia, she was there. It wasn't until Uzume trapped me in a delusional dream that I was able to talk to her and find out the truth."

"So that's how you got her processor." Noire said softly, getting a nod from Nepgear. "I guess she visited you too, huh?"

"She wanted to say goodbye." Nepgear said softly as she finished her wine glass off. She nodded in thanks as Noire poured her another glass. "Her spirit can rest easy now, I think." Noire nodded and raised her glass to Nepgear. Nepgear tilted her head in confusion for a moment before realizing what Noire wanted to do. Raising her glass up, she gently rapped them against each other. "To Neptune, my best big sister..."

"To someone who could have been my best friend." Noire whispered softly and downed the glass in one gulp, much to Nepgear's surprise. "I told you." She said with a gasp when she finished the glass. "If not for the fact that I can't get drunk on this stuff, I'd be a rampaging alcoholic."

"I guess drinking for over a century helps in that regard." Nepgear said as she rotated the glass softly from side to side. "Noire, can I ask you something?" The Lastation CPU nodded to her. "Why did you show up with that picture of Jupiter? You had to know that I wouldn't react well to it."

Noire pursed her lips softly. "...Would you believe that I wanted to die?" Nepgear jerked in surprise as Noire continued. "Uni's more than ready to take over Lastation. I was feeling crushed and I just wanted the pain to end."

"...I felt the same way." Nepgear said softly. "Until that night. When Neptune, you know, the bigger one, crashed onto my bed. She..." Nepgear felt her eyes watering up as she thought about her trans-dimensional elder sister. "She held me and hugged me, she let me cry for so long... I... I would have joined Reizume if not for her."

Noire suddenly chuckled, causing Nepgear to look at her sharply. "Blanc was so shocked to see a Neptune with boobs."

Nepgear pursed her lips softly. "...Have you seen the Memorial Park?" Noire blinked in confusion. "Come on, I want to show you something I had made years ago."

(-)

Minutes later...

Noire looked around at all the purple flowers and trees. "This is..." She paused, her eyes wide and a tingling feeling went through her body as she looked at the statue of Purple Heart standing there, her katana drawn and pointed down while looking brave and heroic. "...Purple Heart..." She sniffled and walked over to the statue, gently touching it. "It looks just like her."

"Yeah..." Nepgear said softly. "I wanted to put this closer to the Basilicom, but I knew..." She sniffled softly, "I knew that if I did, people might put faith in Neptune still and that would hurt me in the long run. But I wanted something to remember her."

The two stood in silence as they looked at the statue. No more words were needed between them.

'Neptune,' Nepgear thought to herself, 'I know you're watching over me, and I know I'm not alone, but I'm allowed to miss you when I think about you, right?'

'Neptune...' Noire sighed softly. 'Thank you... For being the best CPU.'

For a brief moment, both Noire and Nepgear could swear they saw the Purple Heart statue smiling at them.

"She's still watching over us." Nepgear said softly, a small smile on her face. "Onee-chan, I promise you, I'll live my life to its fullest."

"Don't worry about me, Neptune." Noire whispered softly. "I don't want to kill myself anymore."

They both knew that one day they would join Neptune, but they both wanted plenty of stories and happiness to take with them into the next life when that happened.

* * *

Not sure if this is depressing or not, but then again, both of them suffered from severe depression for years.


	2. CPU Candidates

Disclaimer: I don't own Hyperdimension Neptunia, it belongs to Idea Factory, Compile Heart, Sega and whomever else works on it.

There are more characters to cover than just the CPUs, how about we see what the Candidates were up to while Noire and Nepgear were talking?

* * *

As they walked into Planeptune City, the four CPU Candidates looked at each other and grimaced. "Why the heck were there giant dogoos?" Uni asked as she shook her arms, slime falling off of them and splattering onto the sidewalk.

"I think..." Jupiter muttered as she flexed her fingers, "that I want to take a bath." She grimaced as tendrils of slime slid down her fingers and onto the ground.

"Yeah, this is super yucky and gross." Ram blanched as some slime got into her mouth. "BLEAAAAAAH!"

"Well..." Jupiter muttered to herself. "Now I don't need to know what a dogoo smoothie would be like." She smirked as Uni laughed while Rom and Ram looked confused.

"Too bad I don't have extra clothes." Uni muttered, not liking the thought of being in slimy clothes for too long. Sure, she could transform and fly back to her room to get a change of clothes, but she just didn't want to do that.

"Oh, don't worry about that." Jupiter smiled at Uni. "I'll let you three borrow some of mine."

"You sure?" Uni asked while Rom and Ram both cheered at the thought of not being in sticky and slimy clothes anymore.

"Sure, it's not like any of us have large breasts to worry about with clothes." Jupiter replied, smiling. When Uni suddenly crouched down and had a sullen look on her face, Jupiter stared in confusion. "Uh..."

"It's not my fault, it's not my fault, it's not my fault, this series is so dang mean to me! I shrink when I go HDD! It sucks!" Uni cried out, raw frustration and annoyance in her voice.

Jupiter looked at Rom and Ram in confusion as the twins giggled.

"Miss Uni hates being reminded that her boobs aren't that big." Rom explained. "And then what little boobs she has shrinks when she goes HDD."

"...Oh." Jupiter said, understanding. "Um, Uni..." She sighed as Uni continued to mutter in despair. "Think of it this way, you're still bigger than your ancestor was."

Uni blinked a few times before standing up and smiling. "Hey, yeah, you're right, I am bigger than she was." Then again, she hadn't seen Sapphire Heart in her human form. Privately Uni wondered if Sapphire Heart was flat-chested in both forms or if she was busty in her human form. "Thanks, Jupiter, I feel better now."

"Come on!" Ram whined, "I'm sick of being sticky, slimy and gross."

"Yeah, let's go." Jupiter nodded as they headed towards the Basilicom.

(-)

Minutes later...

Cheering as they ran into the bathroom, Rom and Ram's eyes sparkled as they saw how big the bathtubs were. "Wow! You could go swimming in this!"

"Uh huh!" Rom nodded in agreement with her sister. Both giggled threw their towels to the side and jumped into the bath, splashing lots of water upwards.

"Hey!" Uni groused as she walked in with a towel wrapped around her slender body. "Be careful there, you'll make the floor slippery." She gawked as Jupiter walked past her, a towel over her shoulder and nothing else on. Jupiter threw her towel over a bench and slid into the bath, smiling in relief.

"Come on in, Uni!" Ram giggled as she splashed water on Rom, who jerked away to avoid getting any water in her eyes.

Rolling her eyes and removing her towel, Uni slid into the bath with the other three and sighed as she sank into the hot water. "Wow, this feels really good." She tilted her head in confusion as Jupiter was grinning from ear to ear. "What's with that look?"

"Oh nothing, I just wonder..." She saw Rom was slightly bent over and looking at her curiously, Ram was sitting down not far away and with where Uni was, it just was perfect. "Would you like the water jets to turn ON?!"

Before the girls could ask what Jupiter was going on about, suddenly they screamed out as jets of water sprayed out, the water itself started to bubble from the water jets all activating at once. Jupiter laughed as she saw the expressions of shock and the blushing faces from the girls as the water jets hit them in various places.

"Ahhhh!" Rom's face was flush. "Not my butt again!" Flashbacks of fighting in Leanbox when one of the robots had tried to shove one of its wing appendages up her butt ran through her mind.

Ram had yelped as she felt the spray on her butt, which caused her to try and stand up, only to lose her footing and she slipped, falling into the hot tub and her head went under. "Blub blub!"

Uni's face was bright red as she stood up, her hands going over her crotch and she bent over. "That wasn't funny!" She yelled as Jupiter clutched her stomach and laughed at them.

"Blub..." Ram stuck her head out of the water and gasped for air. "That wasn't cool!"

"Nah uh!" Rom shook her head and all three CPU Candidates looked at each other and nodded before turning to Jupiter, who had stopped laughing and was looking at them nervously.

"It was just a joke..." Jupiter gulped as her three friends seemed to loom over her, their bodies covered in shadow and their eyes were white outlines from Jupiter's perspective. It was actually pretty intimidating. "Umm... Have mercy?"

"I'm sorry, you're praying to the wrong Goddess... I'm fresh out of mercy." Uni grinned at her as all three grabbed Jupiter at the same time. "I think naughty girls need to be punished."

"Uh huh..." Rom nodded. "And she liked to laugh at us, so..."

"TICKLE TORTURE!" Ram declared as the three naked girls began tickling Jupiter across her naked body.

"BWAHA HAHA HAHA HAHA! OH NO! BWAHAHA HAHA HAHA HAHA HAHA! OH MAN! I'M TICKLISH THERE!" She screamed as Ram tickled her butt while Rom tickled her feet and Uni tickled her armpits. "BWAHA HAHA HAHA HAHA HAHA HAHA HAHA HAHA!"

"If you say you're sorry, we'll stop." Uni said while Jupiter continued to laugh while tears started to form in her eyes.

"BWAHA HAHA HAHA HAHA HAHA HAHA! OH YES! I'M SORRY! OH NO! I'M GUNNA PEE IF YOU DON'T STOP! BWAHA HAHA HAHA HAHA HAHA HAHA-GLUB GLUB!" It was hard to keep laughing as the three let her go and she fell into the hot tub, sinking under the water completely. Gasping as she got out of the water, Jupiter coughed a few times. "Not nice!" She pouted and squirmed. "Ahhh!" She got out of the hot tub and ran for the toilet, causing the other CPU Candidates to blink in surprise.

"I thought she was saying that to make us let go." Rom said in surprise. It had worked, she didn't want to get peed on by accident.

A little later, Jupiter came back into the bathing area and gave the three of them an annoyed look, which they returned.

The annoyed looks only lasted a few moments before all four burst out laughing. After all, it was hard to stay annoyed at someone when you were dripping wet and naked.

After getting back into the hot tub, the four sighed in relief as they got comfy around the jet streams, as they hadn't stopped during that whole time.

"Hey, Jupiter..." Uni spoke up suddenly. "Ever play 4 Goddesses Online?"

Jupiter smiled at her. "Yeah! I was going to ask you three if you played, maybe we could make a party together?"

"That would be awesome!" Ram grinned at that. "What's your name? I'm +DS-i+ on there."

"I'm +DS_Lite+." Rom smiled shyly.

"And I'm Single Shot." Uni wondered why Jupiter looked shocked for a moment. "Jupiter?" Suddenly the short haired girl burst out laughing. "What's so funny?"

"You're not going to believe this, but I'm Twin Swords." Jupiter laughed, causing the other three to blink in surprise before joining her in laughing at that. "I can't believe it, I was friends with you three before we ever even met."

The four of them didn't know if it was fate that they would become friends or not, but that was one heck of a coincidence.

(-)

After getting cleaned up properly, the four found themselves in the living room. Uni, Rom and Ram were all wearing robes around their bodies with shorts on covering their bottoms while Jupiter was wearing biking shorts and a loose t-shirt.

"So what's this?" Uni asked as she, Rom and Ram held controllers while Jupiter set up the game.

"It's called Planeptune Racers Transformed." Jupiter said as she ran back to the couch and grabbed a controller.

"Cool!" Rom's eyes started to sparkle. "Fat kitty! I'll take the kitty!"

"Hmm, I'll take this star person." Ram muttered, for some reason most of the cast was annoying her and she didn't know why.

"I'll take this red... Dreadlocks thing." Uni tilted her head in confusion. "What kind of mascot is that?" Then again, Lastation had things like Bandicoots as their mascots, so maybe this wasn't that weird.

"Okay, I'll take the fox." Jupiter said as she loaded up a race track. "I only got this yesterday, so I don't know anything about it."

"Well, let's just play and find out." Uni said as the race started up.

A few minutes later, all four of them were shocked as the cars transformed into planes and the race track suddenly turned into a flying race simulator.

"So cool!" All four said in awe as they flew around various obstacles before landing on the beach and their vehicles transformed back to normal.

It was hours later when Nepgear and Noire, both smelling of the wine they had been drinking, found the four Candidates. "Hey, Uni." Noire smiled as she saw her sister.

"Hey, Noire." Uni wrinkled her nose. "Ugh, did you take an alcohol bath again?" Everyone looked at either her or Noire in confusion and Noire rolled her eyes.

"First of all, Uni, that was because I was dealing with criminals in the alcohol factory. Secondly, I slipped on a bottle and fell into a vat." Noire twitched, that hadn't been fun. "And lastly, the only reason we smell is because Nepgear tried to pour me some of the wine I brought with me and it slipped out of her hand and splashed the both of us."

"At least there wasn't much left in the bottle after we got done with it." Nepgear admitted. "Anyway, it's late, and I'm sure..." She nodded as several stomachs suddenly rumbled in hunger. "Thought so. I'm feeling a bit lazy. Anyone up for delivery pizza?"

Seeing the way everyone's faces lit up, Nepgear knew she made the right choice. "I'll go make a call."

"Oh, Nepgear, there you are." Histoire said as she floated into the room. "Oh, and Jupiter and the others too." She smiled at them.

"Is there a problem, Histoire?" Nepgear asked and mentally sighed as Histoire shook her head.

"No, I was worried about you, I hadn't seen you in hours and you weren't in your office." Histoire admitted to her. "...But you do smell pretty bad."

"I was going to order some pizzas and get cleaned up." Nepgear said and looked at Jupiter. "Can you show Noire where the bathroom is?"

"Sure." Jupiter nodded and led Noire out of the room.

"Don't let her be in there with you." Uni called out, smirking as Jupiter twitched. "She booby-trapped the hot tub."

"...Did you have the jets set to max settings and turn them on when people were sitting over them?" Nepgear asked, getting a nod from Jupiter. "Oh... Good job."

Noire suddenly laughed as she heard that. "You two really are Neptune's sisters." Jupiter looked at her in confusion and Noire jerked her head while smiling at the younger girl. "Come on, I'll explain as you show me where the bathroom is."

"Sure." Jupiter smiled as they left the room.

Looking at Nepgear, Histoire smiled softly. "Nepgear..." The CPU gave her a confused look. "You've come so far."

"I'll go order those pizzas now so I can get cleaned up before they get here." Nepgear said as she pulled out her phone and looked up some information before dialing a number and walking out of the room.

"Miss Histoire..." Rom spoke up softly. "You seem really happy."

Histoire smiled at the three Candidates. "Because when I look at Nepgear now and remember how she was not even eight months ago, I feel nothing but happiness in my heart." Sure, Nepgear was still a bit too serious at times and she didn't show too many emotions around most people. But the fact that she could laugh, smile a little or how she didn't react negatively to having CPUs of other nations in the Basilicom with her showed Histoire just how far Nepgear had come.

Of course, Nepgear still had some problems personally. Ten years of festering hatred and depression didn't magically disappear after all.

Still, Histoire knew that Nepgear was on the path to fully healing. 'And hopefully one day you'll be able to smile and laugh freely, Nepgear.'

It gave her hope for the future.

* * *

What? You thought Jupiter WOULDN'T do something like that? You silly people.


	3. Blanc

Disclaimer: I don't own Hyperdimension Neptunia, it belongs to Idea Factory, Compile Heart, Sega and whomever else works on it.

* * *

Sitting in a trolley, Nepgear fought the urge to grumble in annoyance. Sure, the ride was peaceful, but she'd rather walk or fly to her destination.

"Isn't Lowee pretty, sis?" Jupiter, dressed in thick shorts and a thick t-shirt under her basketball-styled shirt, smiled as she looked out at the snowy landscape.

"I guess..." Nepgear said, slightly disinterested. It wasn't that she didn't find it pretty or anything, the snow was rather unique to her. "This is actually the first time I've ever been in Lowee." Jupiter gawked at her and Nepgear raised an eyebrow at her sister. "Outside of emergencies or meetings, this is one of the few times I've ever left Planeptune. And any time I did leave I didn't bother looking around at the scenery. It was always get to where I had to go, get done, and go home."

"...So I know more about the other nations than you do?" Jupiter asked, surprise in her voice as Nepgear thought about it and nodded.

"Yes." Nepgear sighed and thought about one time she had been near the border of Lastation and had made the mistake of looking at Lastation City.

"Sis?" Jupiter saw the pensive look on Nepgear's face. "What's wrong?"

"It was a year before you were born," Nepgear said without warning, "I had just developed some weapons that could destroy entire cities with ease. I was doing a mission to eliminate some monsters that were near the border between Lastation and Planeptune." Jupiter nodded as she listened with rapt attention. "After I finished, I looked towards Lastation City..." Nepgear took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I felt nothing but contempt and rage towards Noire at the time." Jupiter nodded, that was something she knew very well. "It took everything I had to not pull out a remote and launch the weapon at Lastation City and try to kill everyone there off." Jupiter gasped, her eyes wide.

She almost said something rude to her sister, but seeing the look of abject disgust on Nepgear's face, Jupiter couldn't bring herself to do it. "Sis?"

Nepgear was looking down and gripping her skirt while she trembled, a truly disgusted look on her face. "I was... Such a horrible person back then. All I wanted to do was get revenge on the other CPUs, to hurt them so much. Neptune... No wonder her spirit couldn't find peace, I was..." She stopped when Jupiter grabbed her hands and squeezed. Looking up, she blinked at Jupiter's kind smile.

"Sis, it's okay. Neptune doesn't blame you, neither do the other CPUs and we all know that you were hurting so much at the time." When Nepgear suddenly hugged her, Jupiter wasn't surprised, she just hugged her big sister back. "You're not a bad person, sis, you were just hurting."

Nepgear trembled as she held her sister tightly. There were so many things on her mind at that moment that she didn't know what to say.

In the end, she went with a simple, but profound statement. "Thank you."

(-)

At Lowee's Basilicom waiting area...

"Jupiter!" Ram exclaimed happily as she saw her friend. "It's been too dang long!" Next to her, Rom smiled and waved, both girls were wearing gray dresses and didn't have their hats on for once.

"Only a couple of weeks." Jupiter pointed out, causing Ram to giggle. "Hello, Rom, Financier."

"Hello, Lady Jupiter." Financier smiled at the CPU Candidate and looked at Nepgear. "And you're Lady Lilac Heart, correct?" Nepgear nodded at her. "Allow me to welcome you to Lowee then. It's nice to finally meet you in person and in friendly circumstances."

"Indeed." Nepgear nodded at that, but while she kept her face neutral there was no tension in the air. Jupiter almost thought her sister was looking embarrassed at hearing that. "So you're the maid that my sister talked about?"

"If she talked about me, then yes." Financier nodded at her. "And I want to say, I'm very relieved that the reason Lady Jupiter was so nervous around Lady Blanc was because she is Planeptune's CPU Candidate."

Nepgear raised an eyebrow and looked at Jupiter, who blushed and rubbed the back of her head. "...What did you tell them?"

"Uh... She kind of figured out that I was from Planeptune." Jupiter giggled nervously. "I wasn't trying too hard to hide it."

Nepgear sighed softly. "I'm going to have to teach you proper espionage techniques it seems." Not that she expected Jupiter to need it in the future, but if Jupiter was going to try and sneak out and do stuff in secret, she was going to learn proper techniques, dang it!

"Hey, what's..." A busty brown haired woman dressed in casual blue pants and blue vest spoke up as she walked into the Basilicom waiting area. "Oh! It's the Planeptune sisters." She smiled at them. "Blanny's been waiting for you, um, Nepgear, right?" Nepgear nodded at her.

"You're Lowee's Oracle then?" Nepgear asked and wondered why everyone started to laugh. "...What's so funny?"

"Sorry, I ain't no Oracle." The woman laughed at Nepgear. "My name's C-Sha, Hunter extraordinaire and Blanny's partner."

Nepgear just shrugged, who was she to judge someone's choice in partners? After all, her closest friend and confidant was a flamboyant pure maiden in a pink power armor who called her when she was in the bath just to see how her day was.

Well, that and to flirt with her, but if he wasn't flirting with her Nepgear would have been worried that something was wrong with Anonydeath.

"My apologies, I need to tend to my duties." Financier said and bowed to Nepgear and the others. They nodded back to her as she turned and left to go and do whatever it was she was going to do.

"Rommy, Rammy..." C-Sha smiled at them, glad they were behaving. "Why don't you two and Jupiter go out and play? I need to talk to Jupiter's big sister with Blanny, okay?"

"Okay!" Both twins cheered at the same time, ran to Jupiter and grabbed her hands and pulled her away, causing her to run awkwardly behind them.

"...Should I be worried?" Nepgear asked after the three Candidates were out of sight. She turned to C-Sha, who was smiling at her. "I'm guessing not?"

"Nah, Rommy and Rammy might like to play pranks that involve flying books, but they're good girls." She blinked as Nepgear raised an eyebrow.

"...Flying books? Sounds dangerous, I think there was a spell that could be used to make flying objects stop flying. I think I might cast that if I see a flying book heading for me." Nepgear had a small smile on her face as C-Sha laughed. "I believe Blanc wanted to see me."

"Of course, follow me." C-Sha waved Nepgear her way as she turned to walk back the way she came.

(-)

Sitting in a tall and wide chair that looked more like a two-person love seat, Blanc, who was dressed in her usual blue and white jacket and sleeveless outfit, sighed as she looked at her book. For once she wasn't wearing her usual hat and she had a look of nervousness on her face. It wasn't just meeting Nepgear that had her nervous, but a slew of other things that she just had no idea how to handle.

She looked up as the door to her office opened up and she sighed in relief as she saw C-Sha come in followed by Nepgear. "Hello, Nepgear." Blanc said and stood up, bowing to the other CPU. "Thank you for coming to visit today." She straightened up and her face was slightly red at the looks she got. "I...I figured I'd be polite since this is the first time that you've been here, okay?"

"Oh Blanny." C-Sha walked over to the shorter woman and hugged Blanc against her breasts, smiling as Blanc seemed to melt into the hug and relax. "You don't need to be so formal, you know."

"She is right." Nepgear said as she walked over and sat down in a chair that was near the love seat chair as Blanc and C-Sha sat down on it. "I know we're not... Close, but there's no reason to be so uptight with me."

"I know..." Blanc said, looking a little nervous still.

Sighing and putting her left arm around Blanc's shoulders, the former hunter smiled as an idea came to her. "Blanny..." C-Sha spoke up and Blanc looked up, only for her eyes to widen as C-Sha leaned in and gave her a quick kiss on the lips. "Relax, okay?"

Seeing Blanc turn bright red and sputter, Nepgear blinked several times in surprise. "Oh, so C-Sha is Blanc's girlfriend, huh? I had no clue."

"C-Sha is NOT my girlfriend!" Blanc shot back, giving Nepgear a grumpy look and much to Nepgear's confusion, C-Sha was smiling brightly. That was when she noticed C-Sha's left finger tapping Blanc's shoulder and saw a small diamond encrusted ring on it.

"We're actually engaged." C-Sha said, a happy look on her face.

"Oh?" Nepgear looked at the two and Blanc nodded to her. "Well... Um, congratulations. I hope you two are happy together."

"Thanks." C-Sha giggled while Blanc blushed, but smiled softly.

"Can I ask when this happened?" Nepgear was curious. Both C-Sha and Blanc nodded as they began to tell her.

"It happened about two days after the announcement of the end of the war..." C-Sha began to explain.

*Flash*

"Hey, C-Sha," Blanc was looking at the taller woman a bit nervously as she played a game with Rom and Ram.

Pausing the game, C-Sha looked at Blanc and smiled. "Hey, Blanny."

"Do you want to play, Blanc?" Rom asked and held up a controller.

"In a bit, but, um, C-Sha..." Blanc was flustered and blushing hard. "You know, um, we've known each other for a long time and..."

"...Blanny, is something wrong?" C-Sha asked, confusion evident on her face.

"GAH!" Blanc grabbed her head with both hands and rubbed her scalp hard. "This is so freaking hard! Why is it I can ask if you want to marry me in front of a mirror for practice but not when I'm looking at you face-to-face?!"

All four of them stopped in surprise. Blanc's face turned bright red while C-Sha gawked in shock.

"You mean C-Sha's going to be our big sister now?" Ram asked, happiness in her voice. "You hear that, Rom? C-Sha's going to be our big sister too!"

"I, uh, bwah?!" C-Sha couldn't find anything to say that.

"I mean," Blanc's voice dropped to a soft whisper. "If you want to." She fidgeted and looked down, looking more meek and afraid than at any time C-Sha had seen her.

"Blanny..." C-Sha spoke up after several moments. Blanc looked up only to have C-Sha pull her into a hug and kiss her deeply on the lips. "I'd love to."

"Yay!" Ram cheered and gave Rom a high five. "We have two sisters now!"

"Uh huh!" Rom smiled brightly. "We need to tell everyone and..!"

"NO!" Blanc broke the kiss and glared at her sisters, which was hard to do as her face broke out into a rather goofy, for her, grin. "I get it, I'm happy too," she sobered up slightly, "I... I just want to keep this low-key for now, okay?" The twins looked at her in confusion and she looked away in guilt. "Please? It...It's really complicated, okay?"

The two looked at each other before walking over to Blanc and hugging her tightly. "Okay, Blanc, we won't tell anyone." Ram spoke up.

"Uh huh, we want you to be happy."

Blanc smiled softly. "Thank you." She looked at C-Sha. "I... I just want to keep this low-key for now, okay?"

C-Sha nodded at her and hugged the three sisters and gave Blanc another kiss. "I know you're the shy type, Blanny. It's okay."

Blanc smiled happily, though her face was bright red.

*End Flash*

"Well, that's something, I guess." Nepgear said as they finished telling her about how it happened. "So, um, when is the wedding?"

"In a year." Blanc said softly, her cheeks were flushed softly. "Noire wants us to go to one of her end of summer barbecues before we get married."

"I see." Nepgear said softly and nodded. "Well, if you two need anything to help your love life, Planeptune has plenty of options." Both C-Sha and Blanc looked at her. "...Besides the basic toys, there's some really advanced stuff that you two might be interested in."

C-Sha smirked at her. "What? Can your advanced stuff help a lesbian couple have children?" She didn't notice Blanc's suddenly sharp look at her.

'Please say no, please say no.' Blanc thought to herself.

"That's simple stuff." Nepgear casually said, though she wondered why Blanc twitched slightly. "But is it possible? Considering that she's a CPU and you're a human..."

'Don't ask, don't ask, don't ask.' Blanc repeated in her head.

"That is a good question." C-Sha tapped her chin. "I wonder if it's possible. Hey, Blanny, you think it's possible?"

Blanc sighed and slumped. "Dammit, you two just HAD to ask this line of questions, didn't you?" She massaged the bridge of her nose as both C-Sha and Nepgear looked at her in confusion. "To answer your question, yes, it's possible for humans and CPUs to have children together."

"How do you know that?" Nepgear asked, a rather shocked look on her face. C-Sha likewise had a confused look on her face, though she was blushing softly at the thought of having children with Blanc.

"There were things that our predecessors said that got me curious." Blanc answered her. "During that week after the battle, I did a deep dive into the Lowee archives and found some interesting information about CPUs. Turns out all of my predecessors were meticulous with keeping records." Both C-Sha and Nepgear nodded as they listened to Blanc speak. "First of all, there was a comment by Red Heart about not having any children when she was alive. The way she framed it made me think that it was possible for CPUs to have children."

"That's it?" Nepgear asked, confused.

Blanc shook her head. "No. There was Iris Heart saying that she felt really young and that she faded away when her shares ran out as well. Just things like that got me curious about the past is all. So I found some information on CPUs and..." She sighed heavily. "Well, let me say this," she looked at Nepgear, "do you know how long a CPU can live?"

"Centuries easily, longer even, Iris Heart was over five hundred when she faded away, right?" Nepgear asked, getting a nod from Blanc.

"CPUs can live for over a thousand years easily." Blanc pointed out, "Arfoire had a life-span on par with a CPU and would probably still be alive if you hadn't killed her." Nepgear nodded, remembering that event. "However, other than Iris Heart, no CPU has ever lived more than three hundred years."

"Huh?" Nepgear and C-Sha both looked confused at that.

Blanc sighed softly. "While our potential life-spans are basically infinite, eventually people stop believing in us, or we die in battle, or something else. Without shares, we can't live. Our personal reserves can last a few months, maybe a couple of years at most, but then we fade away."

"...And you're almost two hundred years old, aren't you?" Nepgear asked, getting a nod from Blanc. "Why are you bringing this up?"

Blanc gave her a wry smirk. "Red Heart wrote down that it's a bad idea for CPUs to pursue a relationship with humans or even have children with them."

"I know we'll out-live any potential human lovers." Nepgear said softly. "But any children we could have would be..."

"Completely human, they don't even get any benefits for being the children of CPUs." Blanc answered her. "Red Heart wrote about how Sapphire Heart in her lifetime had multiple husbands, something like fifteen children and how she outlived each one." Blanc trembled softly. "Red Heart said that each time Sapphire Heart lost a child or a husband that Sapphire Heart was consumed by despair and rage that lasted for months on end. Eventually Sapphire Heart, in her despair after losing her fourth husband and final child, fought Iris Heart and perished in the battle, smiling about how she could finally be with her family forever."

"Blanny..." C-Sha hugged Blanc tightly as the smaller CPU trembled and sniffled. Both of them had tears in their eyes. "I... I had no idea."

"Neither did I." Nepgear muttered softly. "Why are you telling me this?"

Blanc gave Nepgear a small smile. "I figure I'll probably live for another seven decades or so before people stop following me and I'll fade away. Humans don't live much past a century, so..."

"Blanny..." C-Sha frowned softly. "Are you telling me that you plan on dying?" Blanc shook her head. "Then what..?"

Blanc was blushing hard. "Well... It's to death do we part, right? I was... Kind of hoping that the two of us wouldn't be split apart by death for too long. I don't plan on killing myself or dying before it's time to go, but..." She smiled and cupped C-Sha's cheeks. "The thought of living without you... It hurts so much."

"Blanny..." C-Sha smiled at her. "I just wish that I could stay young forever so you don't have to look at an old, wrinkly body later in life."

"You could." Nepgear spoke up, causing both Blanc and C-Sha to spin on her, eyes wide. "There are regeneration vats specifically meant for non-medical reasons. And by non-medical, I mean that they can be used to rejuvenate your body and make you younger."

"...Seriously?" C-Sha gawked, her eyes wide. "You could live forever then!"

"No." Nepgear shook her head. "While there are healing tanks for medical reasons such as bad injuries or other problems and healing tanks to return you to your youth, they don't stop the ravages of time on your body." She shook her head slowly. "There was a woman, who was eighty years old, who had gone through the process to regain much of her youth. Even though she had returned to being around forty years old, she passed away a few years later. The doctors discovered that while her body was younger, some of her organs like her heart, lungs, kidneys and brain were still old and just shut down due to time."

"...Why are you telling us this?" Blanc asked, confusion in her voice.

"...Because despite our past, Blanc, I guess I want you to be able to live as happy as possible." Nepgear answered her. "And if I didn't tell you about this..."

"Nepgear," Blanc smiled at her, "thank you."

Nepgear gave her a small smile in return, but mentally she wasn't thinking about C-Sha and Blanc...

But rather a certain pink power armor and how the information Blanc had given her had changed things for her between the two of them.

* * *

Because I know I'll get some questions about this, I think I'll answer them now.

1: Sapphire Heart having four husbands and that many kids is a reference to the different companies that have owned SNK. First it was SNK, then Playmore bought them, then they were bought by a Chinese company before buying themselves back. And the amount of kids is how many different series SNK has under their belt.

2: If you're wondering about ages, Neptune was between 265 and 275 years old or so when she died. Blanc, Vert and Noire are all around 190 years old or so. C-Sha's between 23 and 27 years old. Nepgear is, at this point, 11-12 years old and all the Candidates are 7 and younger.

3: Remember, Red Heart thought Blanc's rage was like when Iris Heart nearly killed her with a baseball bat when she was going through PMS.


	4. Vert

Disclaimer: I don't own Hyperdimension Neptunia, it belongs to Idea Factory, Compile Heart, Sega and whomever else works on it.

* * *

"Why do you think Vert called us last night?" Jupiter asked as she and Lilac Heart flew towards Leanbox in their HDD forms. It was starting to get fairly late in the day as Vert had asked to come shortly before sunset.

"I'm not sure. She said that it wasn't an emergency but that we should come today." Lilac Heart hoped that there wasn't anything wrong. Considering that Vert looked like she had been crying for some reason on the video phone, Lilac Heart wasn't sure what to think. "She didn't sound upset."

"Weren't you in Leanbox four months ago?" Jupiter asked, getting a nod from Lilac Heart. "What were you doing then?"

"Vert asked me to help set up the Nepstarter program." Lilac Heart answered as they got closer to Leanbox. "Since she doesn't have a CPU Candidate, she's been having to do all sorts of work on her own to recover her nation and her shares after the whole Anti-CPU faction stuff ended."

Jupiter nodded; she, Uni, Rom and Ram had gone to help a few times since the battle against Reizume almost a year ago now. While things were recovering and Vert was doing an amazing job, it was still harder on her than it was on Blanc or Noire for various reasons. "Hey, sis..." Lilac Heart looked at her and raised an eyebrow. "I'm glad you've changed."

Lilac Heart gave her a blank stare before nodding. "So am I." It was nice not having nightmares of the other CPUs or thinking of them and feeling nothing but hate and anger. Spying a large green and white building, Lilac Heart nodded to Jupiter and they flew towards it. As they got close they saw Black Heart, White Heart and their sisters as they landed in front of the Basilicom. "You got here fast." Lilac Heart said as she and Jupiter touched down and reverted to their human forms while the others did the same.

Noire gave her a shrug. "I wasn't too busy. Things have been turning around in Lastation lately." Not to mention that the share situation in Lastation was so much better than it had been in years. Enough that Noire wasn't worried about her nation falling apart anytime soon.

"It's fine." Blanc said and looked at the doors as they opened up. "Oh, it's you..." She noted as a brunette in a black outfit and a blue coat with several cellphones strapped to her waist walked out of the building.

"Ah! Lady Blanc! Lady Noire! Lady Lilac Heart!" IF smiled at them. "Jupiter, Uni, Rom, Ram! Welcome, Lady Vert wants you to come in right away!"

"Hey, IF!" Jupiter waved and smiled, noticing how easy IF was moving around and not using a cane or a crutch or anything. "How are you doing?"

"I'm great!" IF smiled at her and even slapped her formerly injured leg, which was still heavily scarred. "See? Didn't hurt a bit."

"If you want I can have you brought in for a cosmetic healing bath to remove the scars." Nepgear pointed out, causing IF to shake her head.

"No..." IF gave her a smile. "Thanks for the offer, but I'd rather keep the scars as a way to remind myself to be careful when I go on adventures." The four Candidates' eyes widened as IF's grin increased. "Yep, I'm officially un-retired from being an adventurer. I need to get back into the swing of things and regain all my lost levels, but I'm back!"

"Awesome!" Ram cheered and ran up to give IF a hug, followed by Rom. "I'm so happy for you!"

"Mmmhmm!" Rom nodded while she closed her eyes and smiled.

"If you want to go on a quest or two, Rom, Ram and I will help." Uni spoke up as the twins let go and looked at Jupiter, who nodded. "And Jupiter will too."

"Well, we might have to do that anyway." IF said as they walked further into the Basilicom. "Lady Vert has someone she wants all of you to meet."

The CPUs looked at each other in confusion while their younger sisters followed after IF.

"Well, let's find out what she wants, that's why we're here after all." Noire said, getting a nod from Blanc and Nepgear.

As they walked through the hallways, Nepgear couldn't help but notice how... Opulent things were. It wasn't like the walls were made of gold or anything, but the carpeted floors and the pictures along the inner walls with the outer walls having large windows made her think that Vert spent a lot of credits a month keeping the place clean. 'Then again, this place was rebuilt a long time ago, right?' She thought to herself, remembering the story that Noire told her. Part of her wondered how much of Leanbox's budget had gone into making the Basilicom look lush and extravagant.

"You look like you haven't seen this part of the Basilicom." Blanc spoke up and Nepgear looked at her as they walked and she shrugged.

"While I've been to this Basilicom, I wasn't paying attention at the time. I tend to hyper-focus on things sometimes."

"Ah." Blanc nodded, she supposed that made sense.

Nepgear wondered what the others would say if she told them that was why she had been able to build an anti-space laser barrier in the span of three days before deciding to not tell them. 'Building weapons and systems when you're paranoid and terrified is a lot easier than dismantling them when you can't even remember how you made some of them in the first place.'

"Hey!" Ram suddenly yelled, causing everyone to get startled out of their private thoughts as a door at the end of the hallway opened up and a girl with long blonde hair, green eyes and about the same height as Blanc stood in the door looking shy. She had a small white dress that covered her from neck to just over her curvy hips, perky butt and the girl had a nice pair of breasts on her frame.

"Um, hello," the girl's voice was timid and she had a small blush on her face as she fidgeted softly. "Welcome to the Leanbox Basilicom, are you the other CPUs?" The group nodded and the girl suddenly broke into a bright smile. "I'm glad, my name is Bouquet."

Suddenly the door opened up more and Vert walked out behind the girl, smiling brightly. "Welcome everyone, I'm glad you could come today."

"Hey, Vert," Blanc spoke up as she looked at Bouquet in confusion. "Who's the girl?"

If Vert's smile got any larger, her cheeks would have torn themselves apart. "This is Bouquet, my younger sister." Blanc and Noire stared openly at Vert while Nepgear looked non-plaused. "Yes, that's right. I finally have my own CPU Candidate!"

"HUH?!" Both Blanc and Noire gaped at her in shock.

"Awesome!" Ram and Jupiter said at the same time and ran forward to greet Bouquet, who was blushing hard while Rom and Uni also came forward.

"Oh, so it happened for you as well, huh?" Nepgear asked, causing Vert to look at her in confusion, though she was still very happy. "The Nepstarter program that I installed a few months ago, your shares skyrocketed since then and now you have your own sister, right?" Vert nodded and Nepgear nodded. "The same thing happened to me with Jupiter. A few months after I installed it the shares in Planeptune skyrocketed and she was born."

"Oh, so you two cheated." Blanc muttered, a slightly annoyed look on her face.

"Cheating would have been finding a way to have Histoire make it happen." Nepgear pointing out to her. "This just bypassed the normal rules for having CPU Candidates is all."

Vert didn't care about any sort of rules, she finally had her own little sister and it was taking everything she had not to smother Bouquet in her breasts with how cute and adorable and...

"BLARGH!" Bouquet yelled as she swung her arms up and down while Vert hugged and buried the poor CPU Candidate's head in-between her breasts.

"Um, Lady Vert..." IF spoke up, causing Vert to blink in surprise. "You're smothering Lady Bouquet again."

"OH MY!" Vert let go of Bouquet, who fell on her butt and gasped for air, her eyes wide. "I'm so terribly sorry, I didn't even realize that I was doing that." She quickly knelt down to fuss over her sister.

"It...It's okay, big sister..." Bouquet giggled softly. "I'd be lying if I said I was used to it already, but I know you don't mean any harm."

"So..." Noire spoke up. "When did she get born?"

"Just yesterday." Vert answered, smiling happily. "Come on, let's have a celebration!"

The other CPUs looked at each other and shrugged. Since they were there and Vert was offering, they figured they might as well accept the offer.

Their younger sisters were already rushing past Vert as they chatted with Bouquet.

Entering the room, the three CPUs were surprised as they saw a large spread of food on the table already prepared as Compa and several cooks came in with large amounts of food.

"I do hope that you're all hungry." Vert smiled happily.

As they sat down, Nepgear looked at the food and was rather amazed at the different types of food. "Before we begin." She said, catching the other's attention, she looked at Vert. "Do you remember Major MASA?"

Vert nodded at that name. "Yes. She was someone I could respect, how is she?" When Nepgear shook her head, Vert pursed her lips. "Oh, I see... She was a good soldier."

"And a good person. Age just caught up to her." Nepgear said softly. "I talked to her a couple of days ago."

"I see," Vert nodded to her, "thank you for telling me."

"There's more." Nepgear reached into her inventory and pulled out a large bottle that had a black label on it, which caused Noire to openly gawk in surprise.

"Is...Is that a Wild Vine Nepberry Merlot?" Noire gasped in surprise, her eyes starting to sparkle as Nepgear nodded. "The berries used to make that wine only grow in Planeptune and it's very rare. I had a glass one time ages ago and I could never find anyone who could get me anymore."

"It is just that. It normally takes a solid decade to make a bottle even half this size." Nepgear nodded to her. "Sadly, this is just a replica of the real stuff." She snorted softly as Noire openly pouted before reaching into her inventory and pulling out a smaller bottle. "This is authentic Wild Vine Nepberry Merlot." She handed it over to Noire, who practically squealed as she took it from Nepgear and hugged it tightly. Turning to Vert, she gave the other CPU a small smile. "Major MASA told me that there was one thing she wished she could do before her life came to and end." She pulled out some wine glasses and put them on the table as she opened the top of the bottle. "She wanted to share a glass of this with you."

Vert smiled and nodded as Nepgear poured all four CPUs a glass of wine while the five younger sisters sat at the other end of the table and chatted about all sorts of things while eating food while IF and Compa helped watch them. "Then, to Major MASA and to all of those who served during the wars."

"To them." The four CPUs gently clinked their glasses together and drank the wine. Noire sighed in giddiness. The wine was just as sweet and tasty as she remembered it being. Vert and Blanc were rather shocked at how much the drink tasted like a fruit drink but with some punch due to the alcohol in it.

Nepgear merely looked at Bouquet before looking back at Vert. "So when will you announce her?"

"I was going to do it tomorrow." Vert answered her. "I don't plan on keeping her cooped up for too long, I just wanted some time to have her all to myself first."

Nepgear nodded at her. "I understand." She had kept Jupiter a closely guarded secret from everyone for years after all. She looked at her wine and frowned softly as she thought back to that time.

"Is something wrong?" Vert asked, concern in her voice. "Did I do something wrong?"

Nepgear shook her head. "No... I..." She put her glass down and gripped her outfit. "I was such a horrible person to you three for so many years. Anytime I think back to then, I hate myself."

"Nepgear," Vert said and Nepgear looked up, only to find herself suddenly pulled into a hug, her head resting against Vert's large chest. "How many times must I tell you? None of us blame you."

Blanc had gotten up and slipped over to hug Nepgear as well. "I certainly didn't make things easier. I was so consumed by guilt and anger over what I did that whenever I looked at you I just lashed out in anger."

"Nepgear," Noire spoke up as she put her hand on the other CPU's back, "you forgave us, you need to forgive yourself."

"I was so consumed by hatred towards you three." Nepgear whispered softly, tears in her eyes. "And Neptune was there for so many years, fighting off my hatred so I didn't act on it."

"Her spirit visited you too, huh?" Vert asked softly, getting a nod from the other three CPUs. "You know... Neptune told me, before she left, that she would see about making it so that I could get a little sister if possible." Vert smiled and looked at the Candidates, who were all looking at them in concern. "Your sister was the best, Nepgear."

"Hey, brat," Blanc smirked as Nepgear looked at her in confusion, "Neptune wouldn't want any of us to focus on the bad parts of our past. None of us were good people back then."

"...You're right." Nepgear nodded and looked at Vert. "Thank you, I needed that." She said as they disengaged from the group hug.

"We all need a hug sometimes, Nepgear." Vert smiled at her and looked at the Candidates. "You know," she spoke up more loudly, "this is supposed to be a celebration. So after we eat, how about we play games all night?"

"YEAH!" The Candidates cheered at that.

"Oh, before I forget," Noire spoke up as she sat down, "you're all invited to the barbecue party in Lastation in two months."

"Yay!" Rom cheered happily. "Miss Noire's barbecue is really tasty!"

"Well then," Nepgear nodded to her, "I look forward to it."

* * *

Vert finally got a sister! Yay!

BTW, the Wild Vine Nepberry Merlot is based on Wild Vine Blackberry Merlot. It's a VERY sweet alcoholic wine that you could drink with breakfast.

AND WHO WAS CHOPPING ONIONS AROUND HERE?!


	5. Barbecue

Disclaimer: I don't own Hyperdimension Neptunia, it belongs to Idea Factory, Compile Heart, Sega and whomever else works on it.

* * *

"I would have thought that you would have had the barbecue at your Basilicom." Nepgear said as she looked around the resort. It was a large cabin surrounded by forests, a small stream not far away and even a waterfall that was visible from where they were.

"Sometimes I want to get away from that place." Noire commented softly and nodded as she saw Vert carrying Bouquet in. The CPU Candidate, despite being announced to everyone in Leanbox two months ago, hadn't been able to access her HDD form. Vert was a little concerned, but Noire had reassured her that all CPU Candidates went at their own pace. Uni had taken over a year before she could transform after all, even the twins had taken roughly six months before they could transform.

When Jupiter revealed that she had been able to access her HDD form within a week of being born, everyone was flummoxed, even Nepgear, who admitted that she didn't realize that Jupiter had been that advanced.

As she and Nepgear set up the grill, Noire gave the younger CPU a small smile. "Can I ask how far you've come with dismantling those Anti-CPU systems and weapons?"

"Mostly done." Nepgear told her. "The only ones left are ones that are built into the city itself."

Noire bit her lower lip. "Do you still have that sword?"

"Gehaburn?" Nepgear asked, getting a nod from Noire. "...Yeah, I do." She sighed at Noire's shocked expression. "It's... It's a bit different. Yes, I know it's a dangerous thing, but it's technically a part of me." A troubled look came to her face and Noire just looked at her silently. "I can't break it, Noire... I can't destroy it. Even if it's evil..." She looked at Noire, a sad look on her face, "it has the soul of that world's Neptune in it." She shook her head and Noire understood instantly.

"Fair enough." Noire didn't like the thought of that sword existing, but if there was a version of Neptune that the sword had consumed, she couldn't ask Nepgear to destroy it.

After all, the whole reason that they were just now recovering from the Anti-CPU Faction was because she, Vert and Blanc had killed their world's Neptune in the first place.

Nepgear blinked as Noire suddenly sighed in annoyance and rubbed her forehead. "What's wrong?"

"The fact that we know there's parallel dimensions, multiple versions of ourselves, our sisters, our enemies, and our friends out there in the multiverse," Noire shook her head ruefully, "it gives me a headache."

"I actually talked to Neptune a couple of days ago." Nepgear said, getting a confused look from Noire, "the small Neptune that we dog piled on awhile ago."

"Oh." Noire nodded. While that Neptune hadn't been the same as the Neptune that she, Vert and Blanc had known, it was still nice to see and talk to her.

"I asked her if she knew an Uzume Tennouboushi, Rei Ryghts, Yellow Heart, Iris Heart, Red Heart or Sapphire Heart." Nepgear said softly as Vert and Blanc both walked up to the two of them. "She said that she might know them but told me not to worry about it."

"What are we talking about?" Vert asked before nodding as Noire and Nepgear filled her in. "Ah, how is your other dimension's sister?"

"She's doing fine." Nepgear smiled softly. "Apparently they had to deal with these hackers with crackers," she shrugged at the confused looks that she got, "I don't know, it's what Neptune told me, anyway, they were doing a beta test of a new version of 4 Goddesses Online and had to deal with some hackers or crackers or something who were trying to ruin the game before it was released."

"I certainly hope they succeeded then," Vert answered, getting a nod from Noire and Blanc, "I would hate it if some hackers with crackers, as Neptune put it, tried to ruin the game here."

"It seems like they did." Nepgear told her. "From what she told me there were a bunch of people who helped out and some of the people who caused problems were willing to take their punishment and helped fix the resulting fallout."

"That's good." Vert smiled at her. "Well, shall we get the barbecue going?"

"Of course." Noire grinned as she started cooking.

"Where's C-Sha?" Nepgear asked Blanc, who sighed. "What's wrong?"

"Her mother got hurt and she had to go and take care of her for a few days. She told me to not stay behind because of it and enjoy myself."

"Oh." Nepgear said softly. "You can tell C-Sha that if her mother's seriously hurt she can bring her mother to Planeptune, we have healing tanks for that kind of stuff."

Blanc smiled at her. "Thank you." She knew C-Sha would appreciate it as well.

(-)

Not far away, by the running stream...

"So you still can't access it?" Jupiter asked, getting a negative response from Bouquet. "That sucks." She muttered as she watched Rom and Ram splash each other in the water.

"Not everyone can do it in six days like you can." Uni grumbled, remembering her own difficulty in accessing her HDD form. It wasn't until she had gotten caught in a collapsing cave that she had finally been able to break through and go HDD in the first place.

"How did you transform so easily, Miss Jupiter?" Rom asked as she and Ram came closer to the group, dripping water from playing in the stream, Ram, Uni and Bouquet all perked up, curious as well.

"You know that sis didn't let me out much until I decided to sneak out, right?" Rom, Ram and Uni nodded while Bouquet kept quiet. "Well, even so, she made sure that I could defend myself. Sis has this awesome battle simulator program."

"So you used a battle simulator to get to HDD?" Uni asked, confused.

"Ah, well..." Jupiter poked her fingers together. "The day I went HDD, I was messing around with the controls and decided to see just what the highest setting was."

"Uh oh." Rom and Ram said at the same time, getting a nod from Jupiter.

"It was... Really scary." She shivered as she remembered that. "Everything went dark and there were these three figures that came after me and were striking me with..." Jupiter trailed off, her eyes wide as she realized something important. "...No way..."

"What?" The candidates had confused looks on their faces.

"I just..." Jupiter sighed heavily. "The highest setting was against your sisters."

"Huh?" Ram asked, confusion on her face while Uni instantly figured it out.

"I knew she was paranoid about our sisters, but..." Uni trailed off as Jupiter nodded.

"I'm confused." Rom and Bouquet said at the same time.

"Sis has this training program that puts holographic enemies in front of you to fight at various levels and abilities." Jupiter started to explain. "I used it to train against all sorts of mob monsters." The other CPU Candidates nodded.

"Her sister viewed our sisters as enemies for years." Uni continued to explain. "So she must have programmed a setting to fight against our sisters."

"But why?" Bouquet asked, confusion on her face as she trembled. "I thought we were all friends."

"We are now." Uni walked over and put her hands on Bouquet's shoulders to calm her down. "But there was a time that your sister, mine and Blanc were on really bad terms with Jupiter's sister." Bouquet nodded at her. "And..." She sighed and took her hands off of Bouquet's shoulders before reaching up and massaging her temples.

Jupiter looked a little troubled, but continued on. "Sis must have created that program for her training simulator so she could fight against the other CPUs with them cloaked in shadow and fighting in darkness so that she could get used to all sorts of different attacks."

Rom looked a little troubled by it, but knew that Blanc, Noire and Vert had been very troubled by their actions against Planeptune and that Nepgear had forgiven them by now. "Miss Jupiter, are you okay?"

Jupiter nodded at that. "Yeah, just kind of sucks that I know I went HDD to kill holograms of your sister." She grimaced at her choice of words. "I didn't even know it was White Heart, I just knew it was a short, shadowy figure with an ax and it was trying to take my head off!"

"It's fine." Uni pointed out. Sure, she wasn't happy to know about this, but considering that Jupiter's sister had created a freaking METEOR backpack with an Anti-Crystal powering it with the express purposes of fighting CPUs, even if it nearly killed her in the process, it only made sense that she would have had something like that.

"Was big sis a bad person in the past?" Bouquet asked, her voice soft.

"No." Rom shook her head. "All our big sisters were big dummies and hurt each other though." Much to Bouquet and Jupiter's shock, a shadow came over Rom's face as her eyes turned red. "They were just big stupid dummy heads and all of them need a spanking!"

"There might be some people who would enjoy that sort of thing." Uni pointed out, drawing confused looks from the other CPU Candidates as Rom's face returned to normal. "Ah..." She coughed, her face slightly flush. "Never mind."

"Want to run through the water and see who can kick up the biggest waves?" Jupiter asked, causing Rom and Ram to perk up happily.

"Sure, why not?" Uni asked as she kicked off her shoes and socks, same with Jupiter and Bouquet.

The next thing anyone heard was a bunch of loud splashing and laughing as the CPU Candidates ran all over the place through the water that wasn't even up to their knees.

Well, it was up to Rom and Ram's knees, but that was because they were so short.

(-)

Hours later...

"COME AND GET IT!" Noire yelled loudly, catching the attention of the CPU Candidates, who stopped playing and rushed towards the picnic benches that had been set up.

"At least it's mild today." Nepgear was thankful that it wasn't too hot, windy or, worse, raining. She still had trouble not freaking out when it stormed outside and she still hated rain.

At least Jupiter always seemed to know when she was having a hard time and had been there every time it rained or stormed. It helped a lot.

'Speaking of whom...' Nepgear thought to herself as she looked at Jupiter, who was standing around and looking somewhat confused. "Jupiter, what's wrong?"

"I dunno, I just thought I heard something loud coming this way very fast." Jupiter said and jerked as she heard the shuffling of a bush. "What the?" She asked and turned to face whatever it was fully.

"YAAAAAAAAAAY!" A yellow and black blur suddenly zoomed out of the forest and collided with Jupiter's stomach.

"GAH!" Jupiter's voice seemed to echo as her eyes were wide while she went flying back before crashing onto her back.

"What the heck?!" More than one person yelled as they stood up while the blur landed on Jupiter, laughing. "WHAT THE HECK?!" Every single person, other than Bouquet, yelled in shock as they saw who was sitting on Jupiter.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA! I win!" A little blonde girl with two red bobbles in her hair, a yellow and black striped bee outfit and two cat paws, laughed as she sat on Jupiter. "Huh?" The girl looked at Jupiter, who was grimacing in pain. "You look like Neptuna!"

"Yellow Heart?!" Everyone but Bouquet yelled in shock as they saw Yellow Heart's human form.

"Huh?" The girl turned to look at them. "Oh! Hi! I'm not Yellow Heart! I'm Peashy!" She said it like it was obvious.

"Nnngh..." Jupiter grimaced at the pain in her abdomen. "That hurt you know!"

"Hahahahahahaha!" Peashy laughed at her. "You're weak like Neptuna!"

"Peaaaaaaashy!" A drowsy voice slurred out as a purple haired girl with long hair done in a braid and wearing pastel pajamas while holding a teddy bear came out from behind a bush. "Don't run... Oh! It's Noire, Vert, Blanc, Neppy Jr. and the other sisters." She smiled at them while clapping to herself. "I was worried when Peashy ran ahead."

"Iris Heart?" Nepgear gaped in shock. "What are you doing here?"

"Huh?" The girl blinked in confusion and put a finger up to her cheek. "But I'm not Iris Heart right now, I'm Plutia. And I'm here because where else would I go?" She asked like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Meanwhile Jupiter had convinced Peashy to get off of her and she was able to sit up while rubbing her abused stomach.

When there was some more rustling behind Plutia, Noire sighed and rubbed her forehead. "Just how many more people are going to come out of the woodwork?"

When a redheaded girl with long hair done up in twin pigtails, dark leg warmers, a dark gray skirt, a white button up dress shirt with an orange tie walked out after them, she looked somewhat embarrassed. "I'm sorry about that, but Peasy and Plutsy got ahead of us."

"Us?" Vert asked and her eyes widened as three familiar people came out after the redhead.

"Gee, you three didn't need to go ahead like that." The tallest of them said, giving the three a bit of an annoyed look.

"Neptune!" The CPUs yelled as they saw the big and smaller Neptune coming out of the forest.

"Heya, Nep Jr.!" The smaller Neptune smiled at the CPU version of her sister. "When you called I thought I'd get some of my friends and come visit."

"Don't blame me for dropping you off in that tree." Croire muttered as she floated down and landed on the big Neptune's head. "I was expecting them to be in one of their Basilicoms, not out in the middle of the forest."

The final person smiled at the group with a slightly embarrassed look and a small blush on her face. "I'm really sorry about all of this, but Neptune wanted to surprise all of you." She looked at the CPU Nepgear and her blush increased. "Wow, now I know why Noire didn't want to meet her other self, it is kind of embarrassing."

Jupiter gawked as she saw the version of her big sister in a white sailor dress looking at them all nervously. "I'd say it worked!" She laughed and stood up before running over to Nepgear and giving the CPU Candidate a hug, much to her shock. "I have all the big sisters now!"

"Goodness! You're my little sister?" Nepgear smiled at Jupiter, who nodded. "You're super cute!"

"Thanks!" Jupiter smiled at her.

Noire looked at the group before sighing. "Well, it's a good thing that I always bring too much food for this, isn't it?" Uni, Vert and Blanc nodded in agreement.

The redhead just smiled and rubbed the back of her head. "Sorry about this, Noiresy."

"Well, the more the merrier, I say." Vert smiled at the group. "Oh, I never caught your name."

"Oh?" The redhead blinked in surprise. "Sorry, Vertsy, I'm Uzume Tennouboushi, former CPU of Planeptune and I heard about your fight against my other self over here." She laughed at their looks of befuddlement.

"Let's not worry about it." The smaller Neptune grinned at everyone. "We've only got a few hours, so let's enjoy some good food and good friends, right?" She winked at them before walking up to the group, followed by everyone else.

"...So when I asked if you knew an Uzume, Iris Heart or Yellow Heart..." The CPU Nepgear began, before putting her hand over her mouth and giggling. "Oh wow, I never would have expected this even in a million years."

"Well, even our Neptune was unpredictable." Blanc smiled as she looked at the group.

"Hey!" Plutia called out, pouting, "let's eat! It's a nice day!"

"Yeah!" Peashy yelled and jumped onto a picnic table seat near Rom, Ram, Uni and Bouquet, getting a laugh from the others.

"Well, there's plenty of food." Uni said as she shook her head. "Strange, a year ago we were fighting them."

"Things change a lot around here." Noire said while nodding to the big Neptune as she sat down next to the CPU Nepgear while the smaller Neptune sat across from the CPU Nepgear with her Nepgear next to her with Jupiter next to her while Plutia sat next to the small Neptune. "Thanks for coming."

Neptune giggled at her. "Thank Big Me for having Darksty give us all a lift."

"I'm not a damn taxi service." Croire muttered as she crossed her arms and looked away. For a moment it looked like the dark skinned fairy's cheeks were slightly flush.

Bouquet, Rom and Ram all laughed at something that Peashy had said involving some horsebirds and a giant metal dogoo that she had fought off in her world.

Uni moved so that she was sitting next to Jupiter, which caused everyone to scoot down slightly so they could all fit on the table.

Vert and Blanc gave each other a look and smiled. Regardless of the circumstances, or even the fact that neither Neptune was their Neptune, it was nice to see her again.

Plus it was kind of nice to see the Ancient CPUs that they had faced in a more friendly setting than in combat.

The smaller Neptune hoped that Histoire wouldn't be too upset at her for sneaking off without telling her. 'Oh well, Noire said she'd hold the fort down for a few hours.' She'd have to do something nice for Noire when she got back, but right now, she was just going to enjoy being around her entire family.

After all, whether they were alternate versions of her sisters or her friends; Uzume, Plutia, Peashy, both Nepgears, Jupiter and even her big self were all a part of Planeptune and were part of Neptune's family as far as she was concerned. 'Not just them.' She thought to herself and looked at the Noire, Vert and Blanc and their sisters of this world and smiled. They may not have been her version of them but to her, they were important people.

And for Neptune, that was all that mattered to her, a happy, peaceful life where everyone could live, be happy and enjoy themselves.

* * *

What? You didn't think this would happen? What kind of silly people are you? BTW, how many of you turned on Hyperdimension Neptunia The Animation - Neptune Sagashite when Jupiter got slammed into by Peashy?

And that's it! The story's over...

"Hold it right there, bucko!"

Huh? Neptune?

"This story isn't over just yet! There's one more chapter to go!"

...There is?

"Of course there is! Now hurry up and post the DLC Bonus Chapter already!"

Uh... Come back for the DLC Bonus Chapter then. And when did this become a Nepstation?

"Hee hee hee! You were the only one not involved in them yet, author!"

Well, this has been Nepstation, I guess. This is Nanya...

"And Neptune! Saying bye bye! And look out for the DLC!"


	6. DLC Bonus Chapter

Disclaimer: I don't own Hyperdimension Neptunia, it belongs to Idea Factory, Compile Heart, Sega and whomever else works on it.

Sorry about that, had to delete and re-upload the chapter.

* * *

It was late at night, the moon was out, most people were asleep and things were quiet as of late.

"I'm surprised to see you again." A voice spoke up that was male, but feminine. The person the voice belonged to turned to see Nepgear in a trench coat standing at the door to his work space. "Honey, I'm glad to see you, are you okay?"

"Yeah." Nepgear nodded and took her trench coat off, revealing that she was wearing a small black dress with purple trim on underneath it. "...Anonydeath, I..." She took a deep breath. "Do you want to go on a date?"

Anonydeath jerked in surprise.

"I mean," Nepgear blushed softly, "going out with a person would be hard for me, so, um..."

"Honey," Anonydeath stood up and floated over to her. "Whether we go to a fancy place to eat, or just staying here, it doesn't matter to me." His voice was gentle as Nepgear blushed. "I'd love to though."

Nepgear smiled and hugged him. "I have to warn you, I don't think I'd be a good girlfriend for you."

Anonydeath hugged her back. "And I told you, I'd love it if you'd be my wife."

"...One step at a time, Anonydeath." Nepgear said softly. "But... Could you... Take off your helmet?" She asked and stepped back as he tilted his head and reached up to unfasten his helmet and took it off.

"Is this what you want, Honey?" He asked and Nepgear could only stare at how... Handsome he was.

"Yeah." Nepgear said before taking a step forward and grabbing his neck and pulling him down a bit before planting her lips on his, much to his shock, though it didn't take him long to kiss her back.

Sure, she knew the problems associated with being involved with a human, Blanc had told her as much.

It wasn't logical, it didn't make any real sense no matter how she looked at it. But quite frankly, she didn't care. Even if she'd outlive him by more than a couple of centuries, he deserved that much from her. 'After all, he's only been my closest friend and confidant for years and he saved my life.' She thought to herself. Of all the people that she could try to start a relationship with, Anonydeath wasn't the worst option in her mind.

And, deep down, Nepgear knew that, even if she would hurt over the loss, she wouldn't mind it.

End Healing of the Heart

* * *

DLC stuff generally is pretty short. Besides, you didn't have to pay for any of it. ;P

And, that's it for Healing of the Heart.

Some final thoughts on Shadows and Healing.

I never intended for any sort of shipping when I did this story originally. It just kind of grew as the story unfolded. Nepgear and Anonydeath weren't supposed to end up like this. I hadn't even thought about it. But as time went on, the idea grew on me. It's so utterly unique and unusual that, ironically, felt natural due to how things went in this world. I do like my UniGear ship (I think it's cute), but I'm not opposed to other pairings. Speaking of Uni, she was never looking for romance in this universe, just a friend that can fully relate to her, which she has in Jupiter now. Blanc and C-Sha was just another pairing that grew on me as I wrote the story (plus I liked the ship from VII).

Anonydeath was originally supposed to be a one-shot throwaway character that was supposed to show that Nepgear wasn't a good guy, but rather an Anti-Hero. Heck, Jupiter originally was supposed to be known in Shadows, but as I wrote the story, well, I realized things could work out differently and much better if I changed how things were with both of them.

This is the end of Shadows and Healing, but it's not the end for my Neptunia writings. I've got some story ideas that some of you might enjoy in the future, but I don't like to start posting until I have a significant amount written ahead of time.


End file.
